'Mansion tax' would only hit 428 homes

A proposed ‘mansion tax’ would only affect up to 428 homes in Wokingham, according to the borough’s Liberal Democrat leader.

Prue Bray revealed the figure while defending the tax, which has been proposed by Vince Cable, Lib Dem Shadow Chancellor.

He suggested increasing a small annual levy – half a penny in the pound – for houses worth more than £1 million at his party’s annual conference in Bournemouth last month.

And Cllr Bray, who is also the Lib Dem prospective Parliamentary candidate for the town, said there are only 428 homes in the highest (Band H) Council Tax bracket in Wokingham borough.

Band H relates to houses that were valued at more than £320,000 in 1991 – but most of those houses would now be worth more than a million.

She said: “I wouldn’t have thought there were that many homes in the Wokingham borough worth over £1m for the levels we are talking about.

“This is only an idea at the moment, but it would be the equivalent of putting an extra band to the Council Tax for properties worth more than £1 million.

“We know there are going to be some hard choices to be made and we have got to look at where money can be saved and made during the situation we are in.

“Vince Cable is trying to remove people at the bottom out of paying taxes and one way to achieve this would be to look at those at the top paying more.”

She added: “I would support discussing it as an idea.

“We have got to look at how, as a party, we can sort out public finances and this idea ought to be considered.”

Cllr Bray’s opinion is in stark contrast to Maidenhead MP Theresa May, who has said that such a move would see the Government’s Valuation Office Agency undertaking annual inspections of all detached homes across the area in order to determine whether or not they should pay the new tax.

The Conservative MP, whose constituency covers part of the borough, said: “It is extremely concerning that both Labour and the Liberal Democrats now support intrusive tax revaluations of people’s homes.

“Under Liberal Democrat plans local residents will face the double whammy of higher income tax and punitive property taxes.

“Conservatives are opposed to these tax-raising plans and we will stop any house tax revaluation and abolish tax inspectors’ rights of entries into homes.”

She said that if the Lib Dems’ other suggestion of a new 3.5 per cent local income tax on the basic and higher rates of income tax was also adopted, almost 15,500 homes across the Wokingham borough would be paying more.